Thirteen villages and approximately 31 square miles (82 square kilometers) of fields and forests to the southwest of the town of al Abassiya in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, Sudan, were deliberately burned, as observed on DigitalGlobe satellite imagery collected on November 26, 2012. This is consistent with the incidents reported on Sudan Radio Service, which stated, “SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Ngutulu said militia believed to belong to the National Congress Party burned 13 villages in Abasiya locality by bombing and destroying farms.”

At approximately 12:30 a.m. local time on October 24, 2012, a series of explosionsrocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

Within 20 minutes of the conflagration, the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP,communicated with eyewitnesses on the ground, who reported seeing flames, smoke,and “many explosions” in the Al Shagara neighborhood of southern Khartoum inthe vicinity of an oil storage facility, a military depot, and an ammunitions plant. SSPreceived reports that the sky was “red from fireballs,” and that three fighter jets were“flying fast around southern Khartoum, to the northwest and northeast,” as a fourth,larger plane flew to the northeast at a much higher altitude.

A newly discovered video obtained by a group of Sudanese journalists with Nuba Reports and analyzed by the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, confirms that the government of Sudan is continuing its campaign of violence against its own civilians through joint operations of army, militia, and police forces that are committing war crimes and recording them on cell phone cameras.

New satellite imagery confirms the destruction of civilian infrastructure in and around El Moreib village and the recent fortification of a Sudanese army garrison at a critical crossroads on the northern front of the war between the Government of Sudan and the rebel movement centered in South Kordofan state.

For the past two years, the Government of Sudan, or GoS, has sent delegations of senior officials, including military and security leaders, accompanied by state media crews, to Sudan Armed Forces, or SAF, bases in border areas during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On August 19, 2012, on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the last day of Ramadan, a GoS delegation chartered a plane which took off from Khartoum and crashed on approach to the SAF airstrip in Talodi, South Kordofan. The Talodi delegation was one of four delegations, which the GoS dispatched to hotspots of rebellion during Ramadan 2012. The other three went to SAF bases in El Fasher, North Darfur1; Kadugli, South Kordofan; and Kurmuk, Blue Nile state.

This Situation Report shows Sudan Armed Forces, or SAF, aircraft at El Obeid Airfield in North Kordofan state, Sudan. El Obeid is within striking range of the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan state, as well as refugee across the border in South Sudan.

The following chart is designed to summarize the Enough Project’s United Nations Security Council Resolution 2046 Compliance Tracker. The chart identifies the government of Sudan, the government of South Sudan, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North’s respective compliance, or lack thereof, with the provisions of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2046. Notably, the chart is not designed to comprehensively catalogue the actions that each party has taken since May 2, 2012 related to Resolution 2046; rather, the chart summarizes each respective party’s compliance to date. The information contained in the chart is based on information publicly available at the time of publication.

At least 80 buildings in the Nuba Mountains village of Um Bartumbu, South Kordofan, Sudan were burned sometime between November 12 and November 28, 2011, according to Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, analysis of Landsat and DigitalGlobe satellite imagery.

The burned buildings, which comprise approximately 90 percent of the village infrastructure, appear to be consistent with civilian residential structures. The pattern in which these buildings were apparently burned is consistent with the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure.

The Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, has released a report on the pilot phase which began in December 2010 and concluded 1 June 2012. This report contains highlights over the past 18 months including a summary of operations, and satellite imagery.

With the completion of the pilot phase of SSP on 1 June 2012, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) concluded its participation in SSP. HHI has transitioned out of SSP, launching the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology with the aim of establishing the first codified technical standards and professional ethics for crisis mapping, including the use of remote sensing and data management technologies pioneered by SSP.

Who We Are and What We Do

The Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, a partnership between the Enough Project and DigitalGlobe, conducts monitoring of both Sudan and South Sudan to assess the human security situation, identify potential threats to civilians, and detect, deter and document war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Enough Project provides field research, policy context, and communications strategy. DigitalGlobe provides imagery from its constellation of satellites and geospatial analysis from the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center. SSP is funded primarily by Not On Our Watch.